Hassled
 

This is a little story about my weekend, so if you are looking for something productive to do, reading this is likely not it. Regardless:

I applied for a credit card from Citibank about a month ago. As a freshman college student I have never had a credit card before. It arrived in the mail today, and I called the number on the front to activate it. I spoke to a representative with an mideastern accent who activated the card, then immediately launched into a schpiel about how he would activate the "credit protector service" for my card; after about 10 minutes of listening to his ramblings he asked me if it was OK to sign me up. I said no. This went on for almost wan hour until I gave up and just said OK, dammit. The reason I did not hang up was because I was not sure if I needed to do anything else after this, and was a little confused since I have never had a credit card before. Anyway, I realized after I had hung up that not only did I not want to be signed up for this credit protector service, that salesperson attitude was completely unacceptable. I redialed the number and spoke to another representative who cancelled the card, and referred me to another number where I could file a complaint. I was eventually able to speak to the manager who told me the representative who I had spoken to was completely out of line and that she would be sending a message to his direct superior about the incident. (I made sure to mention that I had cancelled the card as a direct result of being hassled.) Anway, I have to wait another week before the credit protector service is activated, at which point I will have to call back and cancel it separately.

Talk about annoying. I will definitely be avoiding Citibank in the future and recommend others do likewise. As you have probably guessed, I am basically writing this to get it out of my system because I'm pretty damn pissed right now. Has anyone on this forum had a similar over-the-phone experience?

I've dealt with Citibank on a Diamond Preferred credit card last year... all of my transactions went fairly well. I'm not sure where you are from, supposedly in the US... you may want to try a line of credit from Bank of America. I have a platinum card with them and could not be happier with their service.

However, there are those jackass customer service representatives... who try to bully you into something you don't want. Stick to your guns and tell them that you aren't interested and to move along with the process. Don't feel intimidated when you are dealing with these type of people, because afterall, you are paying them... not the other way around. They are the ones in a position to lose something... in this case, they lost you as a customer and probably hundreds / thousands of dollards in interests and fees. I hate it when customer support for a service offered in the US has a mid-eastern accent. As if the problem that you were trying to resolve wasn't complicated enough, now you are dealing with someone who doesn't know English very well and introduces more problems due to the language barriers.

It only takes one bad representative to ruin the taste for a company. There are plenty of credit card companies out there though, starting a line of credit is a good idea. I know several organizations where you can have loads of money, but if you don't have credit you are considered a second rate citizen. The sooner you get GOOD credit established the better you will be. Especially, when you want to go buy a house... after college of course.

A few things...

These are the people who follow the company guidelines. They are the ones who are actually trying to keep their jobs.

That is a dangerous attitude. These people usually don't benefit no matter how well the company does (or how well they perform). How would you feel if everyone treated you like crap? If you are nice to people and you make yourself clear, you will find people will almost always go out of their way to help you.

If you can't understand people because of their accent, you should probably go back to grammar school and learn English yourself.


As for the topic:
Credit card companies always try to offer you services you don't need. You just have to make sure your card is activated. You can ask questions like "Have I finished setting up my credit card at this very moment?"

And payment protection can often be beneficial. I was once a few days late on a credit card payment when I was moving. Without asking, the company gave me an extra month to pay it. For me, it's worth the .5% per month.

I hate it when salesman try to talk me into something I do not want. Guidelines or not. I use to be a salesman and people tend to like me because I did not force them into buying something they didn't want. Sue me if that doesn't make me a good salesman!

No its not. No one is saying to talk to a representative with an attitude. When someone just wants Product A, the rep shouldn't talk about Product B or C. Especially after one declines it.

That doesn't make any sense. Why should you go back to grammar school, which has nothing to do with how to SAY OR SPEAK words? Grammar is how a language is structured. I think if someone wants to do business, they should have employees speak English fluently for the customer's sake.

@titaniumdecoy: That really sucks man! I also recommend Bank of America. I don't have a credit card but every single member in my family has an account at Bank of America and I don't hear any complaints.

Trust me, this guy was completely out of line. I said "no" repeatedly for almost half an hour until I gave up. Stupid stupid stupid!

I never said that I couldn't understand him. However, he spoke much too fast and kept repeating legal statements I couldn't understand.

I hear everyone recommending the Bank of America card so I have applied for one. Thanks!

It is not guidelines, it is quotas. They try to meet quotas at the customer's expese.

No, these people normally don't benefit from the company. Performance and service is a matter of quality control. As mentioned above, no one said treat them negatively... so apparently that was misread. Sure be nice to people and they will be nice to you, but the same amount of people will take advantage of you. Basically, air on the side of caution in your daily business.

Here is some English for you:

"Accent usually refers to differences of pronunciation -- deviations from the standard -- by which the speaker might be socially and/or culturally categorised (in terms of class, region, ethnicity)."



Glad to hear you went with Bank of America... I'm sure you'll have great service!

There called a guy once, also a salesman. Firstly, he got my mother, and tried desperately to get a 'yes'. Being bored anyway, we've talked to him more than half an hour (half way we switched talking to this guy). He didn't even realize I could say yes but that it wouldn't be legal - I'm not 18 yet.

You really shouldn't have cancelled the card, espescially since it's your first. Cancelling a card is a negative connotation on your credit report.

I thought the costumer was always right? No?

Way back when I had a thread about my experience trying to activate windows via telephone. I could probably find it, but I'm way too tired right now.